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SvennoJ on 27 May 2024
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Repeat article from November for those still claiming the right of self-defense.


Does Israel’s claim to self-defence hold up?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/17/does-israel-have-the-right-to-self-defence-in-gaza

The death toll in Israel’s war on Gaza has now topped 36,000, with about 10,000 Palestinians missing and more than 81,000 wounded.

Israel has justified its offensive under a right to self-defence following Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7.

Israel, backed by its allies, has cited Article 51 of the UN Charter to defend its actions. The charter states that until the UNSC takes measures to maintain international peace and security, “nothing in the charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations”.


Does it apply to Israel against Gaza?

Many experts aren’t convinced that it does apply.

“The right to self-defence can be invoked when the state is threatened by another state, which is not the case,” Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in an address to the Australian Press Club on Tuesday.


(That was November 15th)

The attack Israel faced on October 7 came from an armed group in a territory, Gaza, that Israel has effectively controlled.

Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005, but it has imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the enclave since Hamas came to power in 2007.
(Backed by Netanyahu)

That, according to Albanese, amounts to occupation – although Israel and its allies disagree with that assessment.

“Israel does not claim it has been threatened by another state. It has been threatened by an armed group within an occupied territory. It cannot claim the right of self-defence against a threat that emanates from a territory it occupies, from a territory kept under belligerent occupation,” Albanese said.

Albanese was referring to a 2004 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which said the construction of Israel’s separation wall in the occupied West Bank was illegal. The ICJ rejected the Israeli argument to build the wall, saying it could not invoke the right to self-defence in an occupied territory.

Are there other challenges to Israel’s argument?

Other experts point to the devastating scale of Israeli attacks on Gaza.

“The death of a reported 4,710 children, attacks on healthcare, the withholding of water and electricity – these cannot be merely justified as a ‘right to self-defence’,” said Iain Overton, executive director of the London-based Action on Armed Violence, which conducts research and advocacy on armed violence against civilians.

He added that for Israel to claim this right without being challenged “would be a mockery of the international humanitarian law”.

It's over 15,000 children now (see the link)




‘How many red lines must be crossed?’: Norwegian Refugee Council chief

Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), has said in a post on X that the Rafah camp attack is another one of the “red lines” of Israel’s allies that have been trampled.

“No more red lines” is the appeal the aid organisation is making to European leaders meeting in Brussels now, he said.

Egeland also said that mass civilian casualties and attacks on hospitals were other red lines disregarded by the Israeli military.